Moldova: Mobile Telecoms Market Overview
Orange
Orange Moldova is the largest mobile operator in Moldova and was also the first to begin operating, which it did under the brand Voxtel in 1998, it rebranded to Orange on 25 April 2007.
In 1998, Voxtel was the only mobile telephony services provider in the country. Given the licensing agreement with the government, the company was supposed to have exclusive rights for 5 years. However in 1999 the second GSM license was given to another company (Moldcell) which started its activity in April 2000. In response to this competition Voxtel launched the countries first pre-paid services, its Tempo package.
A 94.3 percent share of Orange Moldova belongs to France Telecom with the remaining 4 percent being controlled by the Romanian subsidiary Orange Romania.
TeliaSonera - Moldcell
Moldcell began its activity in Moldova on 28 April 2000. Moldcell’s shareholders are MolFintur SRL which holds 1 percent of the shares and Fintur Holdings BV owning 99 percent of the shares.
As of 1 April 2008, Moldcell’s network has been available to 95.06 percent of population across 95.59 percent of the territory of Moldova.
Since launch Moldcell has remained the second placed mobile operator in the country and despite having reached 40 percent market share in 2005 has recently been losing market share and is now down to 30 percent, due to its stagnant growth (despite the country’s low market share), combined with Orange’s rise in market share.
Unite
Unite the only mobile network operator in Moldova to operate the CDMA standard and uses the 450Mhz frequency.
It began its activity on the 1 March 2007.
Unite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Moldtelecom.
Its network coverage is currently 94 percent of the territory of Moldova.